PHT 650 - Ethics & Law in Public Health, 3 credit hours

This course explores the legal powers and duties of the state, in collaboration with its partners (e.g., health care providers, business, the community, the media, and academe), to assure the conditions for people to be healthy, and the limits on state powers to constrain the autonomy, privacy, liberty, proprietary, or other legally protected interests of individuals for protection or promotion of community health. After reviewing key concepts relating to the public health “system” and introducing the concepts of public health ethics, law and policy, we overview basic theories of ethical decision-making and their relevance to public health. Public health ethics seek to understand and clarify principles and values that guide public health actions, offering a framework for making decisions and a means of justifying them. We close the course by applying what we learn to specific forms of government intervention to address public health problems.